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"Why would we?" Lucas’s tone was hard "You made her cry, Nathan You made your mate cry and then you didn’t hold her"

The blow hit hi force "Where is she, Lucas?"

"I don’t know--you could ask Nita, but I don’t think she’s around" He glanced at the sun-touched trees "I have to get to the Circle for training"

Nate didn’t try to stop hi there when Cian appeared out of the shadows "Nate? You after Lachlan? I just left hi to find Tammy"

Cian’s face showed instant coer "What the hell are you doing to that girl, Nate?"

"What’s right for her" Cian didn’t understand what it was to watch a woman fall out of love with her man, turn bitter and self-destructive…and finally, suicidal He’d held his mother’s dead body He refused to hold Ta when Shayla died But did you hear her complain?" The sentinel’s voice was a whip "Seventeen years old and she took on a position most people don’t touch until they’ve reached their third decade"

"Exactly!" He blew out a frustrated breath "All that responsibility and then a s she has no conception of--"

Cian swore, low and pithy "Isn’t that your job as her mate? To demand but to let her de share the burden, not add to it like you’ve been doing with your self-pitying bullshit"

"You ht be my senior," Nate said, the leopard in his voice, "but you are notliterally driven hirave after his wife’s death--he’d wrapped his car around a tree "You want to take ed you, Tammy would have my head"

With that sier "Tell me where she is I have to rew by the minute

"I don’t know" Cian shoved up his sleeves "To be honest, I don’t think you deserve to know, either And don’t bother asking Nita--she has no idea where Ta out of the car"

"What, none of you bothered to ask her?" He couldn’t believe that, not with how protective they had become after what had happened to Shayla As this inquisition clearly proved "You let her go off on her oithout a word of protest?"

Cian’s eyes turned opaque "She’s an adult leopard No one has the right to question her decisions"

And she’d ainst a tree and stared up at the dawn sky It pro blue "Where did Nita drop her?" She wouldn’t be hard to track--she was carrying his heart with her

Cian snorted "Sorry, you’re on your own You made the mess, you can daut-punched, I will tell you so she said to Lachlan when sheFinn in as cover"

Nate straightened "What?"

"She said you were o, she decided it had better be her" The older male shook his head "My Keelie is the most precious part of my life How could you let your mate think she was less than you, Nate?"

Nate still hadn’t found an answer to that question seven hours later when he finally located the first hint of a trail He was certain that this here she’d left Nita’s car He looked up and found himself close to Tahoe Tamsyn had vanished somewhere in the lake city’s streets Nathan had every intention of hunting her down

UNFORTUNATELY, WHEN HE RETURNED TO THE DEN TO PICK up his gear, he found another surprise waiting for hihter, Nathan?" was Sadie’s first question

He began to grab what he needed "I’ll find her"

"I don’t know if I want you to find her" Ta her this ti her home"

"Why? So you can make her miserable?" She moved to block the doorway, fierce in her maternal protectiveness "Let her roa her to do Well, looks like she listened Don’t you dare go after her"